%0 Generic %D 2008 %T Religion and IT %X In view of this situation, religions experience the challenge of giving ethical answers to pressing ques-tions particularly in the field of information and com-munication technology that is at the same time an important instrument for religious communication: • Do religions conceive ICT inventions and innovations as threatening or as benefi-cial? • Do they see the opportunities offered by ICT as a possible avenue to communi-cate their contents and values? • Or do they, on the contrary, see ICT as a threat arising from the free access to information that allows alternative groups to offer different kinds of mean-ings to texts and events? • Which kinds of relations are being ad-dressed by religions, in general, towards the media? • Which principles of information ethics are being applied or betrayed? • Which kinds of political, economic or ideological movements can become a threat for these principles being mis-used or undermined? • How do religious institutions (such as churches, local communities, charity or-ganizations, religious orders, religious groups, religious media institutions, etc.) use and evaluate ICT? • To what extent can religious groupings contribute to the international ethical debate regarding ICT and its application? For this IRIE issue authors were invited to send an article from the perspective of one specific religion – among them, the abrahamitic-prophetic in addition to Asian sage-oriented religions, ‘traditional religions’ such as African or Western ones, and other indigenous religious (excluding sects). %B International Review of Information Ethics %V 9 %8 2008 %G eng %U http://www.i-r-i-e.net/issue9.htm